The Tea Party Against The Wall

Obama has just announced that he will ask Congress to impose a tax on the richest of Americans. To drive the point home, he has called this tax of solidarity the Buffett Rule, in reference to billionaire Warren Buffett. All of a sudden, Republicans find themselves between a rock and a hard place.

After being pushed around by Republican “schoolyard bullies,” Obama appears to be on the attack. In proposing this windfall tax on earnings over $1 million, he puts the Republicans in the uncomfortable position of opposing the solidarity effort at a time when the majority of Americans are suffering from the economic crisis.

To get out of this trap, the Republican Party has said through the voice of Rep. Paul Ryan, that the tax would hurt job creation. It’s an old, overused excuse and as demonstrated by Paul Krugman, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, this tax would have absolutely no impact on employment.

Obama has not yet revealed the details of this tax, but it has no chance of coming into force without the support of the Republicans in Congress. It is not clear if this ‘Made in the USA’ variant of the ISF (l’impôt de solidarité sur la fortune) will contribute significantly to the budget deficit; however, the proposal was mostly for strategic political purposes. The battle for the White House rages on and it is not yet clear which side will be victorious. Will it be the Democrats, who are on the side of Americans? Or will it be the Republicans, who are on the side of the rich? In a way, the Buffett Rule recalls the tactics used by Karl Rove, who launched debates with the intent to divide the electorate and to mobilize his camp.

The tax would affect 450,000 out of the total 144 million Americans. This leaves the Republicans in the unenviable position of fighting for a tiny handful of Americans. It is unlikely that the voters of John Boehner, the Speaker of the House of Representatives who was elected in Ohio, will approve of his choices. The Republican Party will find it difficult to fight back this time.